ustxtxb_obs_1967_05_26_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

criteria. Braun has been planning to amend this bill when it came to the House, to permit local standards to be higher, but there is no chance that his efforts will succeed. This bill will become law, it is likely. The Air Control Board act’s provisions will “revamp the board, reorganize its authority, grant it new powers, and arrange things so that it will be in a position to block every effort by local governments to stop air pollution,” as Braun sees it. He says the board has done “exactly nothing to stop air pollution” since it was organized in 1965. Braun has managed to get two bills of his own through the House. They would permit corporations to be held liable to criminal prosecution for pollution and would permit injunctions to be issued requiring corporations to stop polluting. Barbara Jordan has these bills in the Senate, but it seems likely they won’t come up for a vote. Time grows short and probably the TMA has enough, influence to prevent the Senate from considering the proposed laws. The ;’*nate refused to confirm Gov. ConnOly: i s nomination of John Files as awernher of the Air Pollution. Board. ;ales, whose appointment Was opposed by his home district Senator,’ Hank Grover of Houston, among others, the head of a firm that has been designated as “polluter of the month several l -times by the Houston Post. Workers The minimum wage bill won’t make it, unless a miracle occurs. It is to be suspected that the House may pass the bill that was lately introduced by Rep. Honore Ligarde, timing its move so the Senate will not be able to take up the measure. In other measures affecting workers, Gov. Connally has signed the industrial safety act as a “dues checkoff” bill that will permit city councils to let municipal employees authorize automatic deductions of dues from their pay checks. The governor has also received a bill that would increase the maximum unemployment compensation from $37 to $45. Less likely of success are measures that would regulate the transportation of migrant workers in Texas and ban the hiring of professional strikebreakers. Another bill, that would guarantee municipal transit employees the right to bargain collectively, has passed the Senate. Morality .0, The always-popular field pf morality has not been ignored by the 60th legislaiiire. So far, however, the only morality bill’ that seems to have much of a chance at this advanced date is one that would make possession of LSD a crime that is punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $3,000; a second offense would make the violator liable to a s tence of from two to ten years impris ment. The bill is that of Reps. Burke M grove, Breckenridge, and Dave Finney, Fort Worth. Each had introduced such a bill and then combined to sponsor a sin I iR f:; ;?.t.1 gle measure. Musgrove has expressed optimism that the Senate will pass the bill this session. Proposals that have died include measures that would permit therapeutic abortions, empower colleges to regulate dress and grooming of students, and establish parimutuel betting on horse races. A move is afoot to conduct a statewidereferendum in next year’s primaries to determine voter sentiment on the parimutuel question. This has passed the Senate. A latein-the-game effort is under way now to permit Bexar County alone to have parimutuel horse betting. The Senate is considering this. Chances of passage are slim. Liquor by the drink is still with us, but its chances are also slight, despite the governor’s backing. Some observers are cautioning that the legislature may “slip” the liquor: and horse racing measures through duting the closing days of this session, or next year, particularly if the 1968 session is convened after the primaries, which is most likely. A bill that would establish state standards for cities’ operating movie classification boards was considered by a House committee a month ago, but hasn’t been heard .of since ;; Another measure, imposing strong penalties against entrepreneurs of obscene material has passed a House committee, but hasn’t been taken Up on the floor. Professional heterosexual Massaging was the object of another bill, by Rep. Lee Duggan, Jr., who said that massage parlors are often fronts for bawdy houses. G.O. f I k :P1.; pi Texas’ GOP Looks for the Man V Texas Republicans sense that they have a good chance to make further headway in state politics next year, but finding a candidate to head the ticket in the gubernatorial race is the problem right now. John Connally, if he survives the stiff challenges that -promise to develop in the Democratic primary next spring, would then emerge with the Fourth Term Burden as his greatest liability in November, a deficit that could also prove his undoing in the primary. Another burden for Connally next year could be the special legislative session that he plans to call. The lawmakers will be working out a spending bill that is almost certain to include some sort of tax increase, perhaps a raise of the state sales tax, as liberal State Sen. Barbara Jordan, Houston, has speculated. V Lt. Gov. Preston Smith has denied re ports that he’ll switch parties next year and run for governor as a Republi can. Houston GOP Cong. George Bush has said he won’t make the gubernatorial race. State Sen. Hank Grover, also of Houston, is a possibility; he’s served several terms in the legislature, but Grover’s youth might be a liability in this regard. V The problem, then, is to find a candi date, perhaps from the ranks of the business community \(in the manner earlier a prospect can be found, the longer the Republicans will have to build him up for the governor’s race. V There is less and less doubt that Con nally will be in the running next year. His close political associate, House Speak er Ben Barnes, has said he thinks the governor will seek a fourth term. Mrs. Connally had said the same thing earlier. V The Republicans’ chances for 1968 are in some jeopardy of a threatened ideological split similar to the one that divided the party during the Goldwater campaign. In Texas this has been manifested in women’s and youth groups of the party. The YR’s had a hot state convention in Lubbock earlier this spring \( Obs., March Washington of the National Federation of Republican Women caused numerous painful bruises. U.S. Sen. John Tower tried to stay out of the women’s convention, saying that if the menfolks were wise, “they’ll stay out of it.” Women attending the meeting from Texas were about evenly divided in their preference for federation presidency. One candidate was Mrs. , Phyllis Schlafly, who is identified with the party’s Goldwater wing, and has urged building an antiballistics missile system to scare Ho Chi Minh into peace. Also in the race was Mrs. Gladys O’Donnell, who is a backer of Nelson Rockefeller and supports bombing the Vietnamese harbor of Haiphong. Despite Tower’s wishes, he was not left out of the convention’s doings. Texas women ‘came by his office seeking delegates’ credentials or visitors’ passes to the meeting. Some women, who support. ed Mrs. Schlafly, who lost, were miffed at Tower, saying that his aide, Ken Towery, had refused to let them see the Senator. One of the ladies, Mrs. J. A. Junge, Fort Worth, resigned from the May 26, 1967 7